Located a short drive from the SANAA-designed Louvre Lens, the new facility will contain 18,500 square meters (199,000 square feet) of space, including a 1,700-square-meter (18,000-square-foot) conservation treatment area and 9,600 square meters (130,000 square feet) of storage space.

Built into the the natural terrain, the single-story building will grow out from the landscape with a lush green roof framed by two pairs of concrete walls reminiscent of the French military architecture of Vauban. Materials have been chosen based on their “simplicity, resilience, and sobriety.”

A wide, barrel-vaulted corridor known as the “boulevard of the artworks” will serve as the main circulatory backbone of the building, where art will pass from the 400-square-meter delivery bay to the dedicated areas for conservation and treatment.

“The work done here has enriched our architectural vocabulary,” said Graham Stirk, senior partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and lead designer on the project. “The Louvre-Lens building will blend almost completely into the landscape and marry the sloping form of the terrain. The single storey height of the building will also greatly facilitate the movement of the works.”

The Musée du Louvre and the Nord-Pas de Calais region has selected Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) to build a new conservation and storage facility for the Louvre in Liévin, northern France (Nord-Pas-de-Calais). Built primarily for study and research, the 20,000-square-meter "landscape building" will feature a series of vaulted light-filled conservation studios and storage spaces topped with a lush green roof.